Results from a clinical trial comparing a lopinavir-ritonavir combination to the standard of care for COVID-19 suggest the therapy is promising. The findings will be considered as part of the upcoming Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY (RECOVERY) trial.
The lopinavir-ritonavir trial started when there were only 500 COVID-19 cases worldwide. Researchers at the Jin Yin-Tan Hospital treated 199 COVID-19 patients with either the HIV antiviral combination of lopinavir-ritonavir or the standard of care. According to the team, the symptoms of patients treated with lopinavir-ritonavir improved faster than those given the standard of care alone. The researchers also cited acceptable safety levels throughout.
Professor Thomas J
aki, from the Medical and Pharmaceutical Statistics Research Unit in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Lancaster University, who worked on the first trial, said:
“The results were quite encouraging, which has led to further studies taking place and I would expect to see these treatments to be introduced into routine care, in some cases, in the coming weeks.”
Full text GMPnews.Net